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Born in 1977 in Ljubljana, Slovenia, Mr Damjan Kukovec obtained a law degree at the Faculty of Law of the Univerza v Ljubljani (University of Ljubljana, Slovenia) in 2001 and a master’s degree in law at Harvard Law School (United States) in 2002. He studied for a doctorate at that university, and defended his thesis there in 2015.

In 2002, he began his professional career as a judicial trainee at the Višje sodišče v Ljubljani (Court of Appeal, Ljubljana, Slovenia) and held that position until 2004. During 2004, he was a lawyer at the Special Court for Sierra Leone (Freetown, Sierra Leone) and at the Ustavno sodišče (Constitutional Court, Slovenia).

In 2005, Mr Kukovec joined the Court of Justice of the European Union as a lawyer before joining the Legal Service of the European Commission from 2006 to 2018. In 2006, he passed the Slovenian state bar exam.

At the same time, Mr Kukovec dedicated himself to an academic career, mostly in the field of EU law. Between 2011 and 2013, he taught global law at Harvard Law School and at its Institute for Global Law and Policy. He subsequently taught at several universities of law worldwide, including the FGV Direito Rio, Rio de Janeiro (Law Faculty of the Getulio Vargas Foundation, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) in 2014, the University of Kent’s Brussels School of International Studies (Belgium) in 2016, the European University Institute of Florence (EUI, Italy) in 2016 and 2017, and the Univerza v Ljubljani between 2018 and 2020. From 2018, Mr Kukovec was also a senior lecturer in law and Associate Director of the PhD programme at Middlesex University in London (United Kingdom).

Mr Kukovec currently holds the positions of visiting professor at Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (University of Groningen, Netherlands), visiting academic at the Faculty of Laws of University College London (United Kingdom), and affiliated fellow at Harvard University.

Mr Kukovec is the author of numerous publications in EU law. He is a regular guest lecturer at universities worldwide.

Mr Kukovec was appointed as a Judge at the General Court on 13 January 2022.

Ms Danutė Jočienė was born in 1970 in Akmenė (Lithuania) and obtained a law degree in 1994 and a doctorate in law in 1999 from Vilniaus universitetas (University of Vilnius, Lithuania).

She began her professional career in 1997 in the Department for European law of the Lithuanian government, as an expert in EU law and in the European Convention on Human Rights, in which post she remained until 2001. Between 2002 and 2004, she acted as an agent of the Lithuanian government before the European Court of Human Rights and the United Nations Committee on Human Rights. Further, in 2003-2004 she represented Lithuania as an expert on the Steering Committee for Human Rights and on the Committee of Experts for the improvement of procedures for the protection of human rights at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg.

In 2004, Ms Jočienė was appointed as a judge at the European Court of Human Rights, where she worked for nine years, until 2013, while also acting as vice president of Section II from 2011 to 2013. On her return to her home country, she joined the Lietuvos Respublikos Konstitucinis Teismas (Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania) in 2014, where she served until 2023, first as a judge, and from 2021, as President. From 2023 to 2025, she joined the Lietuvos Aukščiausiasis Teismas (Supreme Court of Lithuania) as a judge. During that period, Ms Jočienė was also a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration. Between 2015 and 2025, she was an ad hoc judge at the European Court of Human Rights.

Ms Jočienė also dedicates a significant part of her time to teaching and research and has authored many legal publications, particularly in the field of human rights. From 1999 to 2004, she was associate professor, professor and vice-dean of the law faculty of Vilniaus universitetas. Since 2014, she has been professor of the law school of Mykolo Romerio universitetas (Mykolas Romeris University, Lithuania).

From 2021 to 2025, Ms Jočienė was the editor in chief and a board member of the periodical publication Lietuvos Respublikos Konstitucinio Teismo periodinis leidinys ‘Konstitucinė jurisprudencija’ (Jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania).

Ms Jočienė has been a Judge at the General Court since 16 June 2025.

Born in 1979 in Zurich (Switzerland), Raphaël Meyer obtained a master’s degree in English law from the université Panthéon-Assas (Panthéon-Assas University, France), a Diploma in Legal Studies from the University of Oxford (United Kingdom) in 2001, and a master’s degree in European Union law from the université Panthéon-Assas in 2002. He continued his studies at the College of Europe (Belgium), where he obtained a master’s degree in European law in 2003. In 2004, he was awarded the Certificat d’aptitude à la profession d’avocat (CAPA) by the École de formation du barreau de Paris (Paris Bar School, France) and a diploma from the Institut de droit public des affaires (IDPA) at the Université Paris-Sud 11 (Paris-Sud 11 University, France).

Mr Meyer began his professional career as a lawyer at the Paris Bar, where he practised from 2005 to 2007. From 2008 to 2012, he worked as an administrator at the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) Supervisory Authority in Brussels (Belgium).

In 2012, Mr Meyer joined the Court of Justice of the European Union as an administrator in the Research and Documentation Directorate. In 2014, he joined the General Court of the European Union as a legal secretary in the cabinet of President Marc Jaeger.

Between 2016 and 2024, he was a legal adviser in the Legal Service of the Council of the European Union where he joined the following teams ‘Institutional Issues, Staff Regulations, Litigation’ (2016-2020), ‘Justice and Home Affairs’ (2020-2024) and, as senior legal adviser, ‘Employment, Social Affairs, Education, Agriculture and Fisheries’ in 2024.

Alongside his duties at the Council of the European Union, Mr Meyer was a lecturer at the université de Lorraine (University of Lorraine, France).

Mr Meyer was appointed as a Judge at the General Court on 7 October 2024.

Born in 1965 in Vitoria-Gasteiz (Spain), Mr José Martín y Pérez de Nanclares graduated in law from the Universidad de Salamanca (University of Salamanca, Spain) in 1988. From 1988 to 1989, he studied constitutional law at the Universität zu Köln (University of Cologne, Germany) and, in 1991, obtained a master’s degree in EU law at the Universität Saarbrücken (University of Saarbrücken, Germany). In 1994, he defended his doctorate thesis in law at the Universität Saarbrücken and the Universidad de Salamanca.

He dedicated himself to teaching international law and began his professional career at the Universidad de La Rioja (University of La Rioja, Spain) as senior lecturer from 1993 to 1996, then as professor from 1996 to 2001. In 1996, he was appointed Secretary General of the Universidad de La Rioja before becoming Vice-Rector for Research from 1996 to 2000, then Vice-Rector for International Relations from 2004 to 2008. Between 2001 and 2009, he was holder of the Chair of Public International Law, but also of the Jean Monnet Chair of EU Law. From 2009 to 2012, the Universidad de Salamanca appointed him to the Chair of Public International Law, which he was awarded again in 2018.

From 2012 to 2018, he was appointed Director of the Department of International Legal Affairs at the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation. In 2018, he spent a year as Director of the Office of the Presidency of the Consejo de Estado (Council of State, Spain).

Mr Martín y Pérez de Nanclares was appointed as a Judge at the General Court on 26 September 2019.

Ms Mariyana Kancheva was born in 1958 in Tryavna (Bulgaria); she holds a master’s degree in law obtained in 1984 and awarded by the Sofiyski universitet ‘Sveti Kliment Ohridski’ (University of Sophia ‘Saint Clement of Ohrid’, Bulgaria). She also holds an additional master’s degree in European law obtained in 2009 and awarded by the Institute for European Studies at the Université libre de Bruxelles (Free University of Brussels, Belgium).

She began her career as a trainee judge from 1985 to 1986 at the Sofiyski Okrazhen Sad (Regional Court, Sofia, Bulgaria). She worked as a legal adviser from 1986 to 1988 and then as a lawyer at the Sofia Bar (Bulgaria) until 2011 and in Brussels (Belgium) from 2007 to 2011. Between 1992 and 1994, Ms Kancheva held the position of Director-General of the Services Office for the Diplomatic Corps at the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Throughout her career, she also specialised in several fields including intellectual property law (registered as an intellectual property representative with the Patentno Vedomstvo na Republika Bŭlgariya (Patent Office of the Republic of Bulgaria)) and economic law (registered as a representative for bankruptcy and insolvency proceedings with the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Bulgaria).

In addition, she is an arbitrator for the resolution of commercial disputes in Bulgaria. As a legal adviser to the Bulgarian Parliament, she participates in drafting various legislative texts. She is the author of several publications and books in the field of European law. Moreover, Ms Kancheva has participated in many national and international seminars, fora and conferences.

Ms Kancheva was appointed as a Judge at the General Court on 19 September 2011.

Born in 1976 in Bayonne (France), Mr Hervé Cassagnabère graduated from the Institut d’études politiques (IEP) de Bordeaux (Institute for Political Studies – Sciences Po Bordeaux, France) in 1997, from the École des Hautes Études Commerciales (HEC Paris) (Paris Business School, France) in 1999 and from the École Nationale d’Administration (ENA, Paris et Strasbourg) (National School of Administration, Paris and Strasbourg, France) in 2004.

He began his career in 2004 as a Judge-Rapporteur of the Fourth Chamber of the Litigation Division of the Conseil d’État (Council of State, France), specialising in civil service matters.

From 2008 to 2010, Mr Cassagnabère was seconded by the Conseil d’État to work as an adviser in the French Prime Minister’s office where he was in charge of cultural affairs. In 2010, by decree of the Minister for Culture, he was appointed as the Managing Director of the national public administrative establishment ‘Musée national Picasso – Paris’.

At the end of 2012, after serving as Judge-Rapporteur at the Conseil d’État, Mr Cassagnabère was seconded to the Court of Justice of the European Union as a legal secretary for a period of eight years.

In 2020, he returned to the Conseil d’État (Eighth Chamber, specialising in tax and property litigation) as a non-presiding judge, responsible for reviewing the work of the judges-rapporteur. Since 2021, he has also been a member of the Home Affairs Section of the Conseil d’État, which is responsible for issuing legal opinions on draft laws and regulations on behalf of the Ministries of the Interior, Justice and Culture.

Mr Cassagnabère has also acted as rapporteur for the commission d’accès aux documents administratifs (CADA) (Commission on access to administrative documents, France), rapporteur for the Conseil supérieur de la propriété littéraire et artistique (High Council for Literary and Artistic Property, France) reporting to the French Minister for Culture, legal adviser to the ‘Forum des droits sur internet’ association, and local deputy councillor for the municipality of Biarritz (France).

In addition to his judicial and administrative career, Mr Cassagnabère was a lecturer in public law at the Instituts d’études politiques in Bordeaux and Paris (France), taught at the École de formation du Barreau de Paris (Paris Bar School, France), and lectured at the Academy of European Law in Trier (ERA) (Germany) and at the Institut de formation et de recherche des avocats aux conseils (IFRAC) (France). In addition, he contributes to the ongoing education of members of the Conseil d’État in EU law.

He is an author of numerous publications on EU law.

Mr Hervé Cassagnabère was appointed as a Judge at the General Court of the European Union on 7 October 2024.

Born in 1969 in Nicosia (Cyprus), Savvas S. Papasavvas studied at the Ethnikó kai Kapodistriakó Panepistímio Athinón (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece) where he obtained the equivalent of a master’s degree in law (Ptychion) in 1991. He completed postgraduate studies at the University of Paris II (France), which awarded him a diploma of advanced studies in public law in 1992. In 1995, after completing his doctoral studies at the University of Aix-Marseille III (France), he obtained the title of Doctor of Law.

Admitted to the Cyprus Bar and a member of the Nicosia Bar since 1993, Mr Papasavvas continued his career as a lawyer until his appointment to the General Court in 2004.

He has also been involved in teaching at the Panepistímio Kýprou (University of Cyprus), as a lecturer from 1997 to 2002, before being elected as a senior lecturer in constitutional law from 2002 to 2004.

Mr Papasavvas was appointed as a Judge at the General Court on 12 May 2004 where he was also President of Chamber for two consecutive terms, from 15 September 2010 to 25 September 2016. He was elected Vice-President of the General Court by his peers on 27 September 2019 and serves at the General Court in that capacity.

Born in 1978 in Iaşi (Romania), Mr Ion Gâlea obtained a law degree in 2000 at the Universitatea din București (University of Bucharest, Romania) and a master’s degree in EU law at the University of Paris I, Panthéon-Sorbonne (France) as part of the Franco-Romanian Legal College for European Studies programme organised in cooperation with the Universitatea din București. In 2002, he obtained a Master in International Relations at the Școala Națională de Studii Politice și Administrative (National School of Political and Administrative Sciences, Romania). He continued his studies at the Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz (University of Graz, Austria), where he obtained a Master in European Studies in 2006. Back in Romania, he began to study for a doctorate in law at the Universitatea din București and defended his thesis in 2008.

Mr Gâlea started his professional career at the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he held the position of attaché diplomatique at the International Law and Treaties Directorate between 2000 and 2002, before taking up the post of Head of the EU Law Department between 2002 and 2007. From 2007 to 2009, he focussed on a service of public interest as a public notary.

After returning to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr Gâlea was appointed as an expert at the EU Law Directorate and held the position of Director between 2009 to 2010. He was then appointed asGeneral Director of Legal Affairs and worked in that capacity between 2010 and 2016.

From 2016 to 2020, he was Ambassador of Romania to Bulgaria and in 2021, he became General Director of the European Bilateral Relations and Regional Cooperation Department at the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Mr Gâlea also taught law at the Universitatea din București: he was a university assistant between 2002 and 2012, then lecturer from 2012 to 2016, and senior lecturer from 2016 to 2021. In 2021, he was appointed Professor at that university.

In addition, he taught as a Visiting Professor at the Hayastani divanagitakan dprots’ (Diplomatic School of Armenia) in 2010, but also at the Institutul Diplomatic Român (Romanian Diplomatic Institute) from 2009 to 2015 and at the Universidade da Coruña (University of A Coruña, Spain) in 2015.

He is the author of numerous publications in the legal field.

Mr Gâlea was appointed as a Judge at the General Court on 27 October 2021.

Born in 1971 in Athens (Greece), Mr Ioannis Dimitrakopoulos graduated in law in 1992 from the Ethniko kai Kapodistriako Panepistimio Athinon (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece) and completed his studies with a master’s degree in law which was awarded to him by the Université Paris II Panthéon-Assas (University of Paris II, Panthéon-Assas, France) in 1994.

Admitted to the Athens Bar in 1995, Mr Dimitrakopoulos practised there as a lawyer until 1997.

In 1998, he joined the Symvoulio tis Epikrateias (Council of State, Greece) as a junior officer, where he served as a junior member from 2005 to 2022 dealing, in particular, with cases in the fields of tax law, competition and trade mark law and public procurement law. In 2022, he was appointed as conseiller d’État (Councillor of State). In addition to those functions, he was a member of the ‘Planning and Organising’ committee of the Symvoulio tis Epikrateias from 2009 to 2010. In 2005, he joined the Office of the European Ombudsman for three years (Strasbourg, France), where he was principal legal adviser before returning to the Symvoulio tis Epikrateias in 2008.

Between 2010 and 2020, Mr Dimitrakopoulos also served as Alternate Chairman of the Board of Appeal of the European Chemicals Agency (Helsinki, Finland).

From 2014 to 2015, he was appointed as an assistant judge to the Anotato Eidiko Dikastirio (Supreme Special Court, Greece) and to the Eidiko Dikastirio tou arthrou 88 par. 2 tou Syntagmatos (Special Court established under Article 88(2) of the Greek Constitution). Furthermore, he served as Vice-President of the Association of Judges of the Symvoulio tis Epikrateias between 2014 and 2016.

In addition, Mr Dimitrakopoulos dedicated himself to research and teaching: from 2003 to 2004, he was Senior Visiting Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley (United States) and, in this capacity, taught courses in European environmental law and comparative law. Since 2010, he has also been Professor at the Ethniki Scholi Dikastikon Leitourgon (National School of Judicial Officers, Greece). He is the author of numerous publications, which include, in particular, tax law, EU law and fundamental rights.

Mr Dimitrakopoulos was appointed as a Judge at the General Court on 13 January 2022.

Born 1964 in Cosenza (Italy), Roberto Mastroianni obtained a law degree at the Università degli Studi di Firenze (University of Florence, Italy) in 1987 and a Master of Laws at the Penn State University Dickinson School of Law (USA) in 1990. He studied for a doctorate in law at the Università di Bologna (University of Bologna, Italy), where he defended his thesis in 1992. He then pursued postdoctoral studies at the université de Genève (University of Geneva, Switzerland) from 1992 to 1993, and at the Universiteit van Amsterdam (University of Amsterdam, Netherlands) and at New York Law School (USA) in 1993 and 1994.

Mr Mastroianni began his professional career as a researcher in international law at the Università degli Studi di Firenze from 1992 to 1997 before working at the Court of Justice as a legal secretary to Advocates General Giuseppe Tesauro and Antonio Saggio from 1997 to 2000.

He was subsequently a Professor of EU law at the Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II (University of Naples Federico II, Italy) from 2000 to 2019, during which period he published a large number of works. In addition, he taught EU law and European litigation as a visiting professor at université Paris 2 – Panthéon-Assas (University of Paris II, Panthéon-Assas, France) from 2011 to 2013. He also taught EU law at Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali Guido Carli (Free International University of Social Studies Guido Carli, Italy) from 2013 to 2017. In 2015, he was appointed as a Professor of comparative competition law at the Sturm College of Law of the University of Denver (USA), where he taught until 2019.

Between 1993 and 2019, Mr Mastroianni was a lawyer authorised to plead before higher Italian courts. He was also a member of the Board of Governors of the Società Italiana di Diritto Internazionale (SIDI) (Italian Society of International Law) from 2013 to 2015 and of the Associazione Italiana Studiosi di Diritto dell’Unione Europea (AISDUE) (Italian Association of EU Law Scholars) from 2018 to 2021. In addition, he was an adviser on legislative matters in the Department of European Affairs of the Italian Government between 2015 and 2018.

Mr Mastroianni was appointed as a Judge at the General Court on 26 September 2019, where he has held office as President of Chamber since 10 October 2024.

Born in 1975 in Prague (Czechoslovakia), Ms Petra Škvařilová-Pelzl studied law in the Czech Republic and in Germany, at the end of which the Univerzita Karlova (Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic) awarded her the title of Magister iuris (summa cum laude) in 1999. She embarked on studies for a doctorate in law at the Universität Hamburg (University of Hamburg, Germany), where she defended her thesis in 2004 (summa cum laude). She also holds an interpreting qualification for German from the Státní jazyková škola (State Language School of Prague, Czech Republic) in 1995.

Although she began her professional career as a research associate in the Commercial, Maritime, and Business Law Department at the Universität Hamburg in 1999, she successfully passed a competition organised by the European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) for the purposes of recruiting Czech lawyers by the European institutions. She then joined the Library, Research and Documentation Directorate-General of the Court of Justice of the European Union as an official and worked as a lawyer administrator from 2004 to 2019. Between 2010 and 2016, she held the post of aide to the Directorate-General. From 2017 to 2018, she subsequently served in the capacity of Legal Secretary in the Chambers of Judge Maria Berger at the Court of Justice.

Author of publications, in particular in the areas of EU law and comparative law, Ms Škvařilová-Pelzl has also devoted herself to teaching at the Univerzita Karlova where she also served as member of the selection boards for doctorate examinations in EU law and at the Verwaltungsakademie des Bundes (Federal Academy of Public Administration, Austria) in Vienna. In addition, Ms Škvařilová-Pelzl also speaks at numerous seminars and conferences, including the biennial German-Czech Law Festival.

Ms Škvařilová-Pelzl was appointed as a Judge at the General Court on 26 September 2019, where she has held office as President of Chamber since 10 October 2024.